


Surface Healed Part 2

by rohanrider3



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, BAMF Allura (Voltron), BAMF Hunk (Voltron), BAMF Keith (Voltron), BAMF Lance (Voltron), BAMF Pidge | Katie Holt, BAMF Shiro (Voltron), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Lance & Keith Friendship, Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Lance & Shiro Friendship, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Recovery, Suspense, Team - Relationship - Freeform, Team Feels, Team Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 11:59:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10386174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rohanrider3/pseuds/rohanrider3
Summary: Recovery is never _that_ easy. (And by easy, we mean insanely difficult.)Or, Lance is a badass even when recovering, his Space Family isn't just the Voltron team, and seriously, don't mess with them.The second (and final) part of my gift for Rangergirl3. Her AU is a beautiful place to play in. And those dang OCs of hers wouldn't leave me alone!(Comments are quintessence! Let me know if you liked it! :) )





	1. I Can’t Stop This (Worried) Feeling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rangergirl3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/gifts).



 

Something was wrong.  
Aurelis couldn’t quite put his talon on it, but something just felt wrong. He tried to ignore it, tried telling himself that he was just twitchy from the long hours spent in surgery and on call, but the nagging itch in the back of his mind wouldn’t. go. away.  
Lance was fine.  
He was. He really, really was.  
True, he’d been horribly tortured less than ten days ago for information by a creature commonly considered not to exist…and then he’d voluntarily frozen his quintessence so said monster couldn’t hurt his mystical Lion…and sent his mind to a shadowy realm called the astral plane….annnnd he’d medically died three times in one day.  
But Lance was fine.  
Absolutely.  
Aurelis swore at himself and kicked his way out of the reclining chair where he’d been sitting staring off into space for the last ten minutes. The novel he’d been reading crashed to the floor. Aurelis didn’t care.  
He had to make sure Lance was all right.  
True, tonight was the boy’s last night in the infirmary. He was probably fine. He’d healed up in the cryopod too, left it days ago, the last few days on bedrest in the Proselyt infirmary had been more of a precaution. Really. Everything was absolutely, normally, perfectly fine.  
Which was why it scared the hell out of him.  
No one was ever that fine after something like that.  
He grabbed his ever present medical tablet off the shelf from where it was charging, and started for the door.  
Riana looked up from her own book. “Oh, Aurelius. You’re leaving so soon?”  
Aurelius stopped, guiltily conscious that he was probably just being a paranoid idiot.  
“No, no.” he floundered, conscious that yes, leaving three hours earlier than they’d planned was exactly what he was doing. He searched for the right words. “I need, I need to go check on Lance. It feels like…I just…well.”  
Riana smiled, put a marker in her own book. Got up, rustled across the floor to him. Put a leafy hand comfortingly on his shoulder.  
“I understand.” she said kindly. She picked up her own tablet. Aurelius looked at her wide eyed.  
“Oh, no, Riana, you don’t—you shouldn’t—I won’t be a minute, I just—“  
Riana smiled, teasingly, but gently at him. “I know you, Aurelius. You’ll get there after a twenty-devrent walk and then you’ll triple check everything since this is his last night in the med bay. And you want to be absolutely sure everything is going as planned. Whether or not it’s your first night off in weeks.”  
Aurelis flushed underneath his blue skin, fiddled self-consciously with his security pass. “You’re right, of course. I just—well, last week we thought he was fine too, but then his quintessence levels dropped and we—it was—“  
He stopped.  
Riana was nodding. “I remember that. Which is why I’m coming too.” she said quietly. “I can help you. And you won’t have to make the trip alone.”  
Aurelius grinned, feeling some of the tension ease out of his shoulders. “That would be nice.” he said truthfully.  
Riana’s green eyes sparkled at him. “That was the point of tonight.” she said cheerfully. “Trying to get you to relax with an old university friend so we can eventually trade stories about the crazy lives we’ve lived since then.” Her brow furrowed a little in puzzlement. “Although why Rayzor didn’t just wait to make you start your two week vacation tomorrow, after Lance is released, I haven’t the faintest. If anything you’re more stressed.”  
Aurelius sighed, thinking about his oldest friend. “He was trying to help.” he said resignedly. “I think Beyris made it sound as if I was going to fall over from a heart attack after last week.”  
Riana hid a smile behind one leafy hand. “Oh, dear.” she said seriously. “Well, we can’t have that. Which is why we’re going on a walk to that sector of yours.” As they left the Trevlin queen’s temporary apartments, Riana asked one of her bodyguards to check in on Grevin occasionally. The youngling was sleeping sounder than a rock, but it couldn’t hurt to make sure he didn’t try to visit his friend “Bewis” during the base’s night cycle.  
Through the vents.  
Again.  
Aurelius half-heartedly tried to get her to stay in her comfortable apartments, but she waved his apologies aside. “I assure you, old friend, it’s no trouble at all. Your Lance makes me laugh. And besides, I want to hear the end to that story you were telling about Arris and the flight simulator.”  
Aurelius felt a rare grin split his face. “Ah, yes, well, it is rather a good one.”  
They turned down the hallway, heading towards the main infirmary on the other side of the base. Aurelis continued.  
“So, it’s Arris’ turn next, but as he comes up in line, he sees the flight instructor yelling at this thin, nervous little first timer that he has never seen anyone fly the simulator that badly, and this kid is going to be lucky if he’s able to clean exhaust pipes for a living. And Arris, he gets this strange glint in his eye. And just as the instructor finishes putting his safety harness on for Arris’ run—the guy was pretty plump, you know, so he was a pretty tight squeeze—Arris yells “OH, GODS!! WE’VE HIT TURBULENCE!” and starts to slam the controls right and left so hard that the instructor—“  
Riana’s laugh was pleasant company as they walked across the quiet base.

***  
Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Lance was dying.  
Of absolute, unadulterated boredom.  
He was bored. Bored, bored, boooooooreeeeeed. He really wanted to get out of here. Yeah, he knew Aurelis cared. Which was why the guy worried so much. But he was booooooorreeeed, it’d been almost two weeks since he’d flown Blue. And he was healing up just fine.  
Lance scratched absentmindedly at the scar tissue just under his collarbone. Cryopods were good, but not perfect. Whatever. Chicks dug scars. Apparently. Besides. If this was the worst that he was left with after that brush with Larochen—he shuddered. Examined his hands. Flexed the fingers smoothly. Grinned smugly to himself.  
Rayzor and Queen Riana—while he was out cold for a few days—had, apparently, set fire to Larochen’s base. And then the surrounding continent.  
Rayzor had shown him the footage five days ago with a fond smile. Just as soon as he’d argued Aurelis into allowing a two-dervent visit.  
Lance had grinned down at the footage, then looked up and given him an enthusiastic thumbs up. The other bandaged hand had been shakily supporting the tablet on his lap.  
“Nice.” he rasped. “Thanks, Rayzor.”  
Rayzor had shrugged, the motion vague and ill-defined underneath the saggy medical coverall that Aurelis had insisted Rayzor put on over his rubble-stained armor. The hard smile in his red eyes was clear, though.  
“Believe me. It was my pleasure.”  
Lance studied the tablet again, flicked the screen with a bandaged finger, rewound and watched the explosion.  
“Wow.” he said again. “That is a huge fireball.”  
Rayzor shrugged modestly. “Riana was very clear that Larochens are hard to kill. They can slip into hibernation and survive temperatures that would kill most any other creature.” The hard smile again. “Her people—or their descendants—may want to re-colonize their planet again in the future. We figured it was better to cut off any problems at the pass.”  
Lance snickered a little bit. He couldn’t help it. “Welp, between you barbecuing his physical body like a hot dog on the Fourth of July and Blue literally eating him on the astral plane, I think it’s safe to say that the dude is history.”  
Lance looked up from the footage in time to see Rayzor studying him intently. He looked anxious, somehow. Almost…worried. Lance lifted an eyebrow.  “You all right?” he asked.  
Rayzor shrugged again. “I’m in excellent health….but…how are you?”  
Lance’s eyes narrowed in exasperated affection. “Geewhiz, for the last time, Rayzor, I am fine.”  
Rayzor nodded again, as if to himself. “Mmmm.” he said.  
Lance snorted. “You are just like Keith.” he groused. Razyor’s eyebrows lifted in mild surprise. “What?”  
“Keith’s all, “are you sure you’re okay, Lance,” and “how many fingers am I holding up, Lance?” and for some weird reason if I don’t respond to any of his questions right away he starts calling me Elsa.” Lance shrugged one shoulder, sighed wearily. “He’s weird. So are you.”  
Aurelis looked up from the corner at the sound of Lance’s sigh. “You’re tired again.” he said sharply. Lance’s indignant protest was interrupted by his own body giving a traitorously gigantic yawn.  
“—aawwwww, man,” he growled. “Not agaa—ain.”  
Rayzor’s smile was almost sad. “I guess that’s all the time Aurelis will give me.” he said, casting his old friend a sly glance. Sure enough, Aurelis was wading over to them, stepping carefully around and over various wires and machines.  
“That’s it, your dervents are up.” he said, holding out an imperative claw for the tablet. He gave it back to Razyor and turned a stern gaze on Lance. “You need to rest, as I’ve said probably five times today.”  
With an effort, Lance resisted the urge to pout. “I have been.” he said. “I’m just—“ Another huge yawn.  
“—bored.” he finished, then waved goodbye to Rayzor with one bandaged hand. “Thanks man. See you later?”  
Rayzor looked over at Aurelis, almost hopefully. “Can—?”  
“Maybe.” Aurelis said omniously. Razyor lingered, just a little. “Beyris was hoping we could all have dinner together later. I told her I’d ask.” he offered.

 


	2. Keep Them From Harm and Injustice

For his part, Aurelis had not missed how Lance’s eyes lit up at Rayzor’s idea, or how his hands stopped irritably tapping out a repetitive rhythm on the handrails of the bed.  
“If Lance—if you, Lance—rest for this afternoon, I could check and see…that is…it would…probably be fine.” he relented, finally.  
Rayzor’s grin matched Lance’s own.  
“See you tonight, then.” Rayzor said, genuine contentment in his voice. “Beyris’ll be so pleased.”  
“Yeees.” Aurelis grumbled. “I’m sure she will be.”  
Lance was practically bouncing off the bed as Rayzor left. Which, Aurelis sourly thought, was rather counter-productive. “Oh, boy, oh, gosh, gee, _thanks_ , Aurelis! Whoo-hoo!”  
“I said we could do it if you rested.” Aurelis said severely. Lance stopped bouncing with an effort. Reached an eager hand out for the remote to move his bed back down. It slipped between his fumbling fingers and clattered to the floor. Lance looked crestfallen, then glared at his clumsy hands.  
“Stupid.” he muttered to himself. “Sorry, ‘relius.”  
Aurelius made a dismissive sound as he stooped, fumbled under the bed, found the remote and carefully adjusted the settings so that Lance was eased back more of a reclining position.  
Aurelis was careful with the settings. He didn’t want Lance lying completely flat yet.  
He frowned anxiously to himself, the familiar expression wrunkling his forehead into steadily growing worry lines. He was always concerned about his patients. But this one troubled him the most, right now. Because Lance’s lungs were still recovering from the toxins Larochen had pumped into them. Cryo pods were good, but he had to make sure Lance’s lungs could actually function on their own for a period of time before he could give Lance a truly clean bill of health.  
The last thing he wanted was for Lance to stop breathing.  
Again.  
But he didn’t have to worry Lance with these details. The boy was having enough nightmares as it was. He and the other young ones had quite enough to be going on with, being defenders of the literal universe, and all.  
Besides, Allura, Coran, and Shiro knew the depths of his concern. And Razyor. And Riana, who’d been helping him identify and neutralize the toxins, one by one.  
Speaking of toxins, it’d been just under ten time slices since he’d run a scan. Which meant—  
“ ‘m gonna have to go to sleep again, huh, Razyor?”  
Lance’s quiet voice broke in on Rayzor’s musings. Aurelis realized he was studying the ticker above Lance’s head, grimaced slightly, then nodded.  
“I’m afraid so.” he said kindly. Then, carefully, “But before you do that, I still need to run some more tests on your lungs. Just a precaution. Hopefully this’ll be the last one, but, even so, I—“  
“—have to use a mask.” Lance said tiredly. He swallowed and looked down at his hands. “I know.”  
Aurelis frowned unhappily to himself at the look on Lance’s face. Then he thought of something and tapped his tablet. Studied the display for a moment. “I believe,” he said cautiously, “that Paladins Hunk and Pidge have just come out of the decontaminating unit after that scouting mission. Perhaps you would like to see them. Before you rest.”  
Lance brightened. “Yeah, I’d—“ He stopped himself. “But don’t you need to get started on the scans?”  
Aurelis made a noncommittal noise, tapping out and swiftly sending a quick message to the young paladins. “Not just yet.” he said smoothly. “I can start drawing a few blood samples first. They’ll have time to drop by.”  
And they can be here when I start the scan. He thought, but did not say.  
Thankfully, Lance did not seem to remember too much about the details of the Larochen incident. He remembered some things—the nightmares were proof of that—but Aurelis thanked every god he knew of that Lance didn’t remember waking up in the med bay right after Rayzor had snatched him out of Larochen’s lair. The boy had been torn, terrified, and crying out for his team.  
Aurelius remembered those few minutes very well.  
He hadn’t slept for more than ten devrents at a time since.  
Which was coincidence.  
Pure coincidence.

***  
He’d left the infirmary only twenty dervents late for his dinner with the Trevlin queen and her son. And only because he’d been all but pushed out of the room by Rayzor, with Lance helping.  
He’d been walking down one of the corridors when an unwelcome voice had called his name.  
“Healer Aurelis! Healer Aurelis!”  
Aurelius stiffened as he turned round. Forced a professional smile onto his face.  
“Healer Neglia. What a surprise to see you.”  
There. He hadn’t lied. He hadn’t said it was a pleasure. Or that it was a _nice_ surprise. Hah. He wasn’t so bad at this after all.  
And Rayzor said Aurelius had little to no social skills.  
He turned swiftly round again, kept walking. He had important things to do today. “Good day.” he threw over his shoulder.  
The hint didn’t work.  
Neglia darted around and in front of him, breathing a little harder than usual. Her sharp eyes studied his.  
“Healer—Aurelius,” she panted, “I was told you’d encountered a most fascinating—that is to say, promising—that is to say, most _interesting_ toxin—the other cycle. Might I be able to see it?”  
Aurelius blinked at her.  
“Toxin?”  
He realized what she was asking after in a flash, and couldn’t quite keep the anger out of his face.  
“Ah, yes. Well, unfortunately, it’s been deemed too dangerous to study.”  
Her face took on the pout of a petulant child. “Oh, nonsense. Those fools on the board—“  
“—were advised by me.” he said. He almost would have enjoyed the look of squashed surprise on her face if he hadn’t been so very busy.  
She recovered her usual aplomb with an effort. “Ah, well, then.” Her eyes glinted predatorily over the rims of her glasses. “Might I at least be able to speak with the subject? I hear it was one of the paladins of Voltron.” She laughed, unconvincingly. “You hear so much about them these days.”  
Aurelius did not return her friendly smile. “My patient,” he said, emphasizing the words ever so slightly, “is recovering. In my professional opinion, asking him about the incident would do more harm than good. At now or any other time. Thank you for your inquiry.”  
He made as if to walk on, but Neglia still moved to intercept him, clearly formulating further questions in her head.  
He stopped, looked down at her, interrupting her half-asked question. When he spoke, his voice was very quiet.  
“Neglia. Do you remember that outbreak of rock snakes in sector twelve’s infirmary a few years ago?”  
She studied him closely, puzzled, but intrigued. “I heard something about it.” Her brows furrowed a little. “Didn’t your cousin—wasn’t she—“  
“In the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes.”  
“Oh. I’m…sorry.”  
“As am I.”  
Aurelis didn’t like to think about that day. Didn’t like to remember how he and Saria had just been doing their normal rounds, just like every other day—there’d been an outbreak of fever down in that sector, and Saria had volunteered to go to the infirmary with him. She’d hung back to check on another patient, something about a form needing to be filled out, when—  
—the ventilation shafts in that sector hadn’t been properly maintained—  
—and the snakes had just—  
—just come out, and—  
—and just like that—  
—thirteen seconds.  
That’s how long it took to die from the venom.  
No matter what he’d done.  
In thirteen seconds, little Beyris had been an orphan.  
And all because of some nasty nest of predatory snakes that no one had bothered to check for.  
Aurelis detatched his mind from the past and looked back at Neglia.  
“As you said. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know what happened to her. But do you know what happened to that nest of rock snakes?”  
The other healer swallowed. Backed up slightly. Aurelis wasn’t quite sure why.  
Maybe it was the look in his eyes.  
“N-n-no.” she gurgled.  
Aurelis’ voice was still very quiet.  
“Neither do I, exactly. Because the security footage doesn’t exist. The lights, you see. The whole infirmary went on lockdown. And lost power for fifteen minutes. They think it was a power surge. And as to what happened during that time…”  
Aurelis shrugged. He wasn’t making the next part up. Part of him wished he was. He might have been able to sleep a little better if he actually knew what he was capable of.  
“I honestly don’t remember.” he said bluntly. “And most of the footage was destroyed in the attack. But I do know two things. One is that the next day I needed to replace all of my medical instruments. The other…”  
He leaned in closer, his voice just above a hiss.  
“ _…is that there are no more rock snakes in sector twelve._ ”  
Neglia swallowed hard, eyes wide and staring behind her glasses. Aurelis smiled back at her. Showing all of his teeth.  
Then he turned and began to walk away again.  
“Healer Aurelis?”  
He rolled his eyes. Would she never go?  
“What’s the point of that story, if I may ask?”  
He turned around to look at her again, smile wide and beaming and utterly, utterly false.  
“That I protect my patients.” he said sunnily. “As our vow clearly states.” His voice dropped to something that was almost a growl.  
“ _ **Doesn’t it.**_ ”  
She swallowed, made an effort, returned his false smile with one of her own.  
“Indeed it does, Chief Healer. Indeed it does.”  
He inclined his head to her, then held the door to her sector open for her, giving her little choice but to go through.  
“Thank you so much for the visit. Have a nice day.”  
She sniffed, then brushed past him, stalking off towards her own infirmary in her own sector. Aurelius sighed in relief after she’d gone.  
Good riddance.


	3. Follow Up Questions

Lance yawned, looked up at the ticker on the wall, rolled his eyes, and readjusted his position so he was a little more comfortable. Twelve more hours, he promised himself. Twelve more Earth hours, and it’d be morning, and Aurelis would reluctantly dismiss him from med bay, and he’d finally be able to stand again. First thing on the agenda would be to swagger down to the paladin’s quarters and surprise all the others at the breakfast table.  
Clap Coran on the back first, maybe. Just to see his reaction.  
No, Keith. He’d sneak up on Keith. And whack him so hard on the shoulder that Keith would bounce over into Hunk. Or face plant into his cereal. And he’d get all mad and whip around, and then his jaw would drop open, and Hunk would belly laugh, and Katie would squeal and jump up and run for him, closely followed by Hunk and a grinning Matt and Dr Holt, and Allura and Shiro would start smilin and Coran would probably get all teary eyed, and the mice would lose their little minds—and after that he could find Beyris and Rayzor, and check in with Riana and Grevin, let ‘em know he was fine—hey, maybe he could take the kids out for a ride in Blue—  
—Blue—aw, man, that’d be the first stop he made—  
It’d be fun.  
Lance grinned at the mental picture he’d drawn for himself. Forced himself to close his eyes. Breathe deeply, in, out, in, out. Just a few more Earth hours. He could sleep. He’d wake up and see his friends. It’d all be good.  
He drifted off towards sleep, his consciousness fading into the dimness between sleep and waking. The low hum and hiss of the machines around him faded. The faint light showing under the door darkened.  
A noise.  
Not belonging to the room.  
Lance stirred faintly, something in his mind registering the disparity.  
The door, creaking open. Soft footsteps. A light flicking on somewhere off to the side.  
A low voice, saying his name. Claws, reaching out, touching his shoulder.  
Lance’s eyes slid open in annoyance. The one time he’d actually wanted to go to sleep, go _figure_.  
He yawned again, blinking a little. “—sdammit, ‘Relius, I toldu I’m _fine_ —“  
Then he blinked again, eyes widening. He felt his heart jump, then start to race. He swallowed, hard.  
“You’re not Aurelius.” he said slowly.  
The unfamiliar, stocky Proselyt woman standing by the side of his bed smiled back at him, sharp white teeth that matched her medical scrubs glinting out from her blue face. Her red eyes studied him.  
“No, indeed. I’m Neglia. An attending physician from another sector.” Her pleasant smile widened. Showed more of her teeth.  
“Didn’t Aurelius tell you I’d be coming?”  
Lance thought about it, furrowed his brow. “No.” he said finally. “No, he didn’t.”

***  
Lance eyed the lady near him suspiciously. She seemed to be on the level. A comfortable, middle-aged sort, the kind who probably owned and took care of twenty cats, or something. Or the alien version of cats, anyway. She had the same kind of security badge dangling around her neck that Aurelius had. She had a med tablet with the Proselyt medical insignia emblazoned on it. And none of the other nurses or doctors in the infirmary seemed concerned that she was in here, speaking with Lance.  
Still…  
“I apologize for the intrusion.” Neglia said sweetly. She’d powered up her tablet and was busily checking the machines near Lance, tapping in figures, flicking through screens, adjusting a few levels here and there.  
“He’s been so tired, you see. Please excuse any irregularities in the schedule. And I’m only here to ask some simple follow up questions. To get you ready for your release tomorrow, you understand.”  
Lance hadn’t stopped watching her. “Sure.” he said slowly. “Sure. I understand.”  
She beamed at him. “Excellent!” She looked down at her tablet. “First question. How are you feeling, physically?”  
“Hunky-dory.”  
“Pardon?”  
“Fine.”  
“Excellent. How is your mental state?”  “As good as it ever gets.”  
She laughed a little at that, then composed herself. “Please answer the question. How is your current mental state?”  
Lance shrugged. “Stable.”  
“Good.” Her voice changed a little, became slightly more interested. “How deep would you say the mind-sharing bond is among the paladins of Voltron?”  
She lifted her head when Lance did not answer, smiled again at him. Lance frowned, raising an eyebrow.  
“That’s not a question they normally—“  
“Please answer the question.”  
Lance paused, felt his mouth turn down in a frown. “Look, I know you’re just doing your job, but, uh, that’s…Aurelius and I already talked about this, it’s not really related to the, to the current—“  
“Oh, but it is.” Neglia interrupted him, still brightly smiling. But there was something brittle hiding just under that smile.  
“Please answer the question.”  
Lance felt his stomach flip over a little. And it had nothing to do with not having had actual food for the last week and a half.  
He yawned, stretched, stalled for time. Looked over at the ticker, felt a surge of relief swell through him. “Um, yeah, Shiro—my, uh, my squad leader—was supposed to show up a few tics ago. He said he was gonna check up on me.” he said easily.  
He decided to play stupid until Shiro came in on his nightly visit and put on a big, careless grin that usually worked when he was trying to annoy Keith. Or when it was his turn to clean out exhaust tubes.  
“I don’t know too much about all the—“ he waved a hand vaguely. “—technical stuff, about that side.” He yawned again, pointedly. “So I’m gunna wait for Shiro to show up, yeah, I’m gunna do that, he can help ya out.”  
_Right out the door_ , his mind finished. He snickered a little at that, mentally elbowed Blue proudly in the side. _Huh? Huh? See what I did there? See how I handled—_  
 _Oh._  
Lance felt his heart drop.  
_Oh, **no.**_  
She was gone again.  
Blue was—  
But how could she—  
Lance felt his face go white, his breath catch. His knuckles made little squeaking sounds as they suddenly clutched the bedframe rails. From where she stood, just out of arms reach, Neglia studied him with narrowed eyes.  
“Fascinating.” she muttered to herself. Lance’s vision had suddenly and inexplicably dimmed, but he still saw her claws working on her tablet. They were making a slow, sliding motion, as if she was operating something—maybe some sort of a remote control?—from it—he saw lights on the machines next to him flicker faster than they had a second before—  
—what was going—  
—his mind was all fuzzy all of a sudden—  
—Lance forced himself to move, started to get up, this was not good, whatever this was—  
Neglia frowned, flicked a few of her fingers upwards—  
—Lance froze as he felt his heart begin to race, faster and faster and faster and faster—it was getting harder to breathe—a lot harder—nonono, not again, not again, not again—  
—he tried getting up, still, but now he couldn’t, why couldn’t he, oh, oh no, oh no, the bandy things, the same kind they’d used to keep Keith still when he’d been half-crazy from the Jenick mess—  
—Neglia had activated them on him, now—  
—oh no, oh no—  
“Don’t get agitated. We don’t want you hurting yourself.” Neglia said, her voice far away but still controlled, still even. Lance felt like laughing in her face. Or throwing up. Maybe both.  
—but Lance’s voice wouldn’t work either, now—his throat had closed up from fear and maybe something else too—his tongue felt swollen—why was it—aw, man, not good, not good, not good—  
—what was—  
—not cool—  
—it was okay, it was fine, he was surrounded by other doctors and other nurses, they’d hear the alarms, on the machines, come in, stop whatever this Neglia was doing, Aurelis would be right here, and help him breathe again, Shiro would show up too—  
—he waited, hoping—  
—nothing—  
—no sound—  
—no sound?—  
—no sound. From in here or outside.  
No machines wailing. No doctors talking. No nurses doing their rounds. Not even the sound of hushed voices or intermittent footsteps.  
Nothing.  
From the whole infirmary.  
That couldn’t be good.  
Lance swallowed hard, or at least tried to. His throat hurt again.  
Neglia’s face, swimming up above him, looking down from an immeasurable distance. Her voice, when it came, echoed strangely.  
“Please answer the question.”  
Lance glared at her. Couldn’t answer. First off, because he didn’t want to. Second, because his mouth had apparently forgotten how to work.  
Boy, would his friends be surprised.  
Neglia’s expression seemed to flicker in annoyance. She sighed, moved out of his line of sight.  
Glass clinking. Drawers opening. She must be at the medicine cabinet. CRAP.  
Lance tried to swallow again. Couldn’t. Looked over at the ticker. Where was Shiro, he wondered desperately. Where was—why couldn’t he talk to Blue—why was no one coming—why was it so quiet outside—  
Neglia reappeared, measuring something out into a needle, injecting it into one of the lines still inserted into the back of his hand. Once she was done, she patted his hand reassuringly. Lance made a mental note to decontaminate that entire arm three times straight once he got out of here.  
Then she smiled down at him, slightly. This one was genuine.  
Creepy. But genuine.  
Great.  
“Now that you’re calmer, allow me to explain.” she said. Lance narrowed his eyes. “Calmer” didn’t exactly describe his current medical condition. “Freaked out of his mind” was a better choice. He’d been doing just fine before she waltzed in. But maybe she’d let something slip, give him a clue as to what was going on.  
Also, maybe he’d delay her long enough for Shiro to get here. Lance fought back the urge to smirk at the mental image of Shiro back-kicking her through the pane glass window and forced himself to concentrate on her voice. Neglia was calmly continuing to speak, just as if she’d still been asking him routine questions off her tablet.  
“One of my colleagues is concerned that you may have disclosed details about our planet’s coordinates and defense systems to the Larochen. While you were being interrogated.”  
Lance huffed. His throat had eased after the injection, and he found he was able to speak. Just a little. His voice came out in a raspy whisper.  
“Tha’s crazy. I—didn’t.”  
Neglia smiled indulgently. “I’m sure you didn’t want to.”  
Lance’s eyes flamed. “I—told—you. I—didn’t.”  
Neglia’s smile did not falter. “Again, I’m sure you didn’t intend to. But you have to understand, we have to make sure.”  
“I don’t even—“ Lance paused, struggled for breath. “—know all that—much. About—your—defenses.” He sucked in another breath, made a mental note to never ever ever need to go to the infirmary again. “I—“  
She interrupted him. Ruuuude. “I’m aware you don’t. But your leader does.”  
Lance mulled this over. “So you wanna….wait, hang on a second.” He looked her straight in the eyes, held her gaze. “You think I can access that sort of info through the shared bond.” he said slowly.  
She nodded slightly, pleased.  
Lance’s lip curled. “Well…shows how much…you know.” He set his jaw. “I didn’t give Larochen anything.” he whispered, finally. “And I can’t see that kind of stuff. That’s not how it works.”  
He turned his head away from her, glared at the opposite wall. “We’re done.”  
Neglia chuckled. Sat down on the side of the bed, her claws clicking on her tablet.  
“I understand you’re upset.” she said, in what she probably thought was a kind and reasonable tone. Lance’s scowl darkened.  
“I know you want to speak to your Lion.”  
Lance’s head whipped round at that. “How did—“ he croaked.  
“—but unfortunately,” she continued, unruffled, “all of the Lions of Voltron are undergoing maintenance.”  
Her expressionless red eyes met Lance’s angry dark ones. There was a moment of heavy silence.  
“All of em.”  
“Yes.”  
“At the same time.”  
“Yes.”  
Lance would have crossed his arms over his chest if he could have. Suddenly, he felt very cold.  
“Huh.”


	4. Deeds and Not Words

Neglia could sense the boy’s frustration rapidly turning into fear. He hid it well, though. His voice only shook slightly.  
“Where’s my team, then?”  
Neglia smiled. She was enjoying this. “Sleeping.” she said, carelessly. She spared him a condescending look. “Even your leaders need to rest sometime.” Idly, she selected an icon on her tablet. Flipped the tablet round, showed him the screen that sprang into life.  
“Here. See? All of them. Safe and sound.”  
The boy was silent as he looked at his friends, sprawled out in the paladin’s lounge.  
Neglia was rather proud of her work. It hadn’t been easy to set up that many devices in so short a time undetected, but she’d managed.  
The big one and the small one had been working on some sort of scanner when she’d activated the signal. They lay peaceably amid the pieces of the disassembled robot, snoring gently. The little green one’s head nestled on the big one’s shoulder like a kitten on a large dog. Her glasses were crooked. Over at a table were the Altean advisor and the two former Galra prisoners. They’d been playing some sort of game that involved thin paper cards. They were slumped over the table, lost to the cares of the world, the cards in disarray. The youngest human was drooling a little. Neglia wrinkled her nose and veered her cameras over to the sofas. The leader and the princess. They must have been sitting close together. Hm. The leader looked unusually peaceful. He never looked that relaxed around the base.  
And—there, on his other side, a book fallen down from nerveless hands—ah, yes. The mixed breed.  
He hadn’t taken as well to the signal. Which was to be expected.  
But that was of little to no—  
“ ** _Enhance_**.” The boy sitting beside her suddenly growled at the screen. Neglia gave him a startled look. Scooted a little away from him. Which wasn’t strictly necessary, given the medical restraints. But still.  
She felt her smile waver a little. “My tablet is encoded to my voice pattern.” she said sweetly. “It won’t obey your commands, blue paladin. Besides, all you had to do was ask.”  
He was glaring at her, jaw clenched, usually tan face paler than usual.  
“What did you do to them? To the Lions, to my friends?” he asked, in a voice very unlike his usual jesting one. She blinked slowly.  
“I did nothing to them, blue paladin. I do not see why you are upset.”  
This was, after all, technically true. She paused, then added, carelessly, “There was a recent security update I helped install just today around this sector. It’s a new program and so there may be some…” she smiled to herself. “Unexpected side effects. Deeper sleep cycles, for one thing.” She gestured at the infirmary around them. “It affects Proselyt life forms in its vicinity too. As you’ve probably notice—“  
The boy interrupted her, shaking his head. “ _Wow_. Shutting down _all_ the Lions, the _entire_ Voltron team, and an _entire Prosleyt sector_ —including an _active infirmary_ with _actual patients_ —just to _talk_ to me. _Wow_. That sounds _awful_ smart.”  
Neglia ignored him, continued on. “And your friends are fine. At the moment.”  
The boy’s eyes fixed on her tablet. He ground his teeth. “Keith’s ears are bleedin. So is his nose. You did something with those awful sonic things, didncha?”  
Neglia shrugged one elegant shoulder. Tried hard to look shocked.  
“Those were outlawed, Blue Paladin. And only made to hurt the Galra. Keeping any of them, let alone modifying them to an extent where they could affect numerous races at once—that would be most inadvis—“  
He snorted and cut her off, rudely. “Did anyone tell Rayzor about this?” he growled, shoulders tense. “He’s in charge of this sector, and he never would have let—and I don’t see him there, so, where is he? And where’s—“ he stopped short.  
Neglia smiled at the look on his face. “I’m glad I can answer your question, paladin. Rayzor was, in fact, the first to know.”  
She showed him another screen.  
The boy’s hands clenched into fists, thin frost appearing and melting over the knuckles in a never-ending pattern of rapidly forming crystals. The restraints steamed slightly where the cold hit them, hissing thin tendrils of dry ice vapor up towards the sterile ceiling.  
Neglia found she was glad—not relieved, no, not at all, but….glad—that she’d taken his unusual abilities into account when preparing the sedative. The last thing she wanted was to be suddenly impaled by ice shards if he couldn’t keep his temper, or frozen into pieces if he decided to be completely unreasonable about the whole affair.  
After all.  
It wasn’t as if she’d done anything _wrong_.  
She studied the image again. Nothing new. Nothing untoward in what her cameras were showing her.  
The newest Council member’s head was slumped over the back of his chair, something dark running down from one ear. He was very still. His little niece was curled up in his lap, braid flipped over one little shoulder, her small clawed fingers curled up comfortably in his jacket.  
The holographic storybook they’d been reading had fallen, was now splayed out on the floor. Neglia studied it with interest. The Last Ice Dragon.  
How strange.  
That’d been one of her favorites, too.  
Neren used to—  
Her eyes darkened. She turned her attention back to the boy. Who was breathing a little more shallowly than before, eyes wide, pupils dilated.  
“What did you do,” he said again, and Neglia was glad to see he was taking this seriously.  
“Nothing.” she said, calmly.  
He lifted his gaze up from the screen, stared at her.  
“Nothing permanent.” she amended.  
He looked back at the screen. “Beyris doesn’t sleep like that.” he said woodenly. Neglia blinked. “Beyris?”  
Lance glared at her, jerked his head back at the screen. “Beyris. The—the kid! She’s always moving around when she sleeps. She kicks, she throws off her covers, hell, one time she straight out threw out her hand and whacked Keith in the face when he went in to check on her. This isn’t normal.”  
His voice went quiet again, hard and sharp as flint.  
“What. Did. You. Do.”  
Without meaning to, her voice became harder, matched his. “My job.” she snapped. She stood up quickly, clutching the tablet close to her side.  
“My job,” she snarled at him, “is to help protect the Proselyt planet. And what the Council’s done—allying themselves with—with—with humans, and the Galra—and the Alteans—and now these Trevlin refugees—“ she felt herself go pale with anger, pressed her lips together.  
“It’s not safe.” she said icily. “And we need to know if we’ve been put in danger by your consistent missions.” Her teeth showed in a snarl. “And your repeated exposure to our enemies.”  
The boy was studying her, mouth twisted up in an expression she could not quite place.  
“Nah. That’s not the whole picture.” he said after awhile. “You wanna work the Voltron bond to your advantage. You want to get information from us too. Not just so you can defend yourselves. So you can take back the offensive. Maybe come up with some anti-Voltron tech too, on the side. AmIright?”  
Neglia’s eyes narrowed. This one was sharp. Even on a sedative.  
He went on, slurring a little. The drugs were making him talkative, but not completely unguarded.  
Well. She’d have to up the dose.  
“Wha’ happened to you?” he asked, meditatively. His eyes flicked longingly back to the ticker on the wall. Stupid child. As if keeping track of the time would help his friends wake up any faster.  
“Whyd you dezide to ztart knockin out little girls and sabotagin perfectly gud allianzes? Whaz your deal?”  
Neglia shouldn’t have said anything. But the storybook the little girl had picked out stayed with her for some reason.  
“My older brother was a pilot.” she said angrily. “He was caught by the Galra, thirty cycles ago. And was tortured. To death.”  
She thought about how much Neren had loved flying, had laughed as he’d showed her the complex mechanisms on his control panel. How his eyes had shone as he’d shown her the maps of the stars he was going to fly through.  
Then she thought about what the Galra had done to him. To his fingers. And to his eyes. And—well. There’d barely been enough left of him for her to identify the body. When they’d found it.  
The boy was looking at her with what he must have thought looked like real pity in his eyes. Neglia blinked hard, sniffed, angrily turned her attention to her tablet again.  
“ ‘M sorry.” he said, and it sounded as if he meant it. The stupid little human. As if he could ever understand what that kind of loss did to a person.  
“But, but Keith—“ she looked at him blankly, he rolled his eyes and amended—“but the Red Paladin isn’t that guy. He isn’t part of the group that killed your brother.”  
“They’re all the same.” she said viciously. “It’s part of his blood, of his history. It’s part of who he is.” She shot him a poisonous look. “You should thank me for opening up your eyes before it’s too late.”  The boy on the bed groaned—outright groaned—and let his head fall back on the pillows. “Oh, _God_.” the kid said, and it sounded like a prayer. “Not this shit _again_.”  
Neglia’s jaw tightened, but the kid kept on talking. He was good at that, she’d noticed. And being annoying.  
A little like—  
_—No_. She told herself, very sternly. _NO. He is NOT like Neren. Not in the least_.  
“Allow me to spell this out for you real clearly.” he was saying. “I’d use a whiteboard, but I left my thick tipped markers at home. Also,” he waggled his hands as much as he could with the restraints holding them down to the bed, “ya know, bandages.” He paused, then barreled onwards.  
_—no, no, no, not in the LEAST like Neren—_  
“Dunno if you’re familiar with this—seems you’re not—but you don’t get a pass to hurt people just because something bad happened. Something bad happened to you? You’re hurting for some reason—whatever reason—and now you wanna hurt somebody else? Usin your own pain as an excuse for causing theirs?” His voice turned acidic. “I got news for you, lady. **That’s not okay**. You’re hurt? You’re tired? You’re _wounded_?” His voice turned into a snarl. “Get in **_futzing_** line.”  
She hadn’t thought his voice could remind her so of her dead brother. _Stop talking_ , she thought viciously. _Stop talking stop talking stop talking stop talking—_  
But he wasn’t stopping. “I mean, comeon, lookit Shiro, lookit Allura, lookit everybody in this  base! The Galra ripped off Shiro’s arm and made him a gladiator, for shit’s sake, and he and Keith are best friends! He isn’t taking out his anger on any Galra sucker he can get his hands on—and don’t get me wrong, lady, he is pissed off at the Galra, and come on, who can blame him?—but he channels that energy into fighting people like Haggar, people like Zarkon, fighting the Galra who are actually hurting other people.” He took a deep breath. “You might not like how Keith and the rest of us are helping, but we are. And even if you don’t like it, it doesn’t give you the right to wage freaking warfare on _five year old girls_.” His voice lost its anger, now was just tired.  
“That’s a Haggar move right there, Neglia. Don’t you see that?” He hesitated. “Can’t…can’t you see that?”  
For a brief moment, Neglia hesitated. Truth be told, she could see a gleam of truth in the paladin’s words. She was bringing children into this. Jenick had as well. She hadn’t liked what he’d planned to do, but she’d gone along with it all the same.  
Because what mattered was the mission. And getting the job done.  
But the paladin’s words were echoes of the ones Neren had told her, all that time ago. When their parents had died.  
_You can’t hurt people just because you’re hurting, Neren. That’s not how we fight back. It can’t be how we fight back._  
But then Neren had died too.  
And all his idealism had done was gotten him quiznaking killed.  
She’d hurt—quiznak, no, she wouldn’t just hurt, she’d kill—she’d kill a thousand more children if doing so would block out that pain from her heart.  
_And what would Neren have thought if you told him that_ , a sad voice said, almost too faint for her to hear. Neglia shook herself.  
Because she didn’t care.  
She blinked. She realized…she didn’t. She actually didn’t care.  
The part of her that would have cared had faded over time. Slowly, first, then faster. And now it was gone.  
What mattered was the mission.  
The blue paladin was looking at her, almost hopefully. She snarled at him, her eyes flamed, and she jammed one control down slightly harder than strictly necessary. He yelped and fell back on the bed, fighting as the restraints pressed down around him so hard he started to struggle for air.  
Neglia eventually let up. He still needed to breathe, after all. And she realized she’d snarled the bit about being willing to kill a thousand children to hurt the Galra out loud.  
Oops.  
The paladin was looking at her, breathing hard, eyes widening, something—not hope for himself, exactly—  
—hope for her? impossible—dying away inside them.  
“So you’re nuts.” he said, quietly. “Got it.”  
Neglia took a deep breath and drew herself up, flicking a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. This was getting off track. She marched over to the medical machines lining the room, adjusted a few levels. Turned up a few more, turned off a few that weren’t strictly necessary at this point. The boy craned his neck, trying to watch her. Swore under his breath. She could hear him trying to freeze his way out of the cuffs.  
Then he gave up. When she looked back at him, he was staring resolutely ahead, a muscle jumping in his neck.  
She got what she needed, started to make her way back over to him.  
“I need that information.” she said, trying one last time to do this the easy way. “And the drugs will work faster if you cooperate.”  
He spared her a glare. “Screw you.” Went back to staring at the wall.  
She thinned her mouth, lowering the bed down until he was staring up at the ceiling.  
“I can always increase the level of the drugs, but that runs the risk of killing you.”  
His voice was tired, drained. But still snarky.  
“Risk away, bitch.”  
With an effort, she kept her voice professional. “I’d rather not. I can’t extract the information if you’re dead.” She tried adding in an incentive. “And if you do cooperate I could assure your friends’ health.”  
“I bet. Like how you swore to do no harm.” he said, in a voice that should have stung the part of her that remembered that long-ago promise. “I’m not an idiot. Helping you won’t help them, no matter what you say. So again. Screw you.”  
Neglia shook her head as she turned to the table, started laying out supplies.  
“It doesn’t have to be like this.” she said again.  
If looks could have killed, the boy’s would have eviscerated her where she stood.  
“Just to be clear,” he said, voice still weak but, very, very angry, “I don’t care what you do to me. Cuz there’s not anything much I can do to stop ya. But I’ll tell you this, and you can tell your stupid buddies this too. If you hurt _any_ one of my friends on this _stupid_ little vengeance trip of yours, I will make it my mission in life to find out where you are, personally hunt you down, and then drop a twenty ton ice chandelier on your _friggin_ head.”  
Neglia paused for an instant at this, blinking.  
“We have no ice chandeliers in this sector.” she said blankly.  
Lance smiled. Contrary to popular opinion, he did not have a nice one. At least, his nice smile was not the one he was giving her.  
“Not yet.” he said sweetly.  
Neglia remembered something and snorted, went back to her preparations. “Your threat is from a child’s story.” she said snidely. “I do not fear it.”  
Lance snorted. “Huh, Beyris watched that movie with me thirty times in the last week. She had the remote and I couldn’t press the buttons to change the channel. So you should fear that threat, lady. Cuz, believe me, I _know_ how to make that ice chandelier.”  
Neglia was unimpressed. “Your threats are nothing more than jests.” she muttered.  
Lance’s eyes followed her motions as best he could. “You’re right.” he said slowly. “They are. Until they’re not.”  
His voice dropped very low, very suddenly, and his voice was no longer remotely pleasant, although the tone had not changed. “How’s this for a threat.” he said, smiling easily over at her.  
But there was nothing friendly in his eyes.  
“I coulda just told you that I can literally freeze the water in your veins. Proselyt are what, seventy percent water? Humans are more, but you’re close enough.”  
She slowed down her typing, stared at him.  
He shrugged too.  
“What. You think you’re the only one who can turn information against people?”  
“You wouldn’t know how to do that.” she said nervously. “Proselyt biology is—“  
“—different than humans, yeah, I kinda figured. But I read some while I’ve been laid up. I got bored, ya know? Pidge’s romance novels, Hunk’s manuals, Keith’s training reigmens, Aurelis’ med journals—it was a literary smorsagboard.”  
That smile again at the look on her face.  
“You don’t think I’d do it.” he said.  
Neglia swallowed down a lump in her throat she hadn’t known she had.  
“I—you—you can’t. The drugs—the drugs I gave you—“  
“—oh, yeah, right, see, _those_ drugs? They wear off eventually.”  
A snap. A hum. One hand was already free, turned towards her. How had—when had—  
When he spoke next, his usually lighthearted voice was icy with rage.  
“ _ **Why do you think I kept talkin**_?”  
A burst of blue light. Neglia screamed. Slammed her hand down onto the panel as icy agony engulfed one shoulder.  
The boy cried out. So did she. She dropped the tablet, clutched at her arm. The figure on the bed choked and fell back, limbs seizing, eyes rolling back in his head. Stupid little child. He hadn't known that using his powers would do that to him. But maybe he had. Decided it was worth the risk. It made not difference to her.

Neglia snarled to herself, stalked over to him. Angrily grabbed his hand and dosed him with twice the amount of sedative she’d used before, risks to his heart be damned.  
Annoying little quiznak.  
She ruthlessly strapped his freed wrist down to the table again, triple checked the medical restraints, and then slammed the oxygen mask onto his face, strapping it on with her one good hand, angrily making sure it wouldn’t fall off.  
She didn’t know why Aurelius made such a big deal about this thing. It wasn’t that hard to put on. At least, not if you didn’t really care about the patient. And she’d had it up to her eyeballs, dealing with this little punk. She flicked her wrist free, let his head fall back to the bed with an impatient whunk. Lance blinked hard and glowered up at her, his eyes already losing focus and sliding shut from the strong dose of the sedative.  
He slurred something through the mask. Neglia frowned. She had no idea what the words “…yer bedside manner is worz than _Keith_ …” meant. Maybe he was losing coherence already.  
Still. Even though she had no idea what he’d meant, she reached out for her tablet. And shocked him all the same.  
Impudent little--.  
She decided she wouldn’t even try to keep his mind intact during this.  
Troublesome little—  
Focus, Neglia. Focus on the mission. Get the information out of the paladin’s mind. Then wipe his memories of tonight and plant the virus. He wakes up tomorrow on schedule, right as rain, is fine for a few weeks.  
Then he collapses. It’ll look like he suffered a sudden and irreversible relapse. A quick, tragic death, symptoms so sudden, one so young gone so soon.  
The Paladins are down one member of their team.  
Maybe Aurelius finally cracks, breaks down from his accumulated stresses. Neglia might very well be promoted if that happened.  
Perhaps Rayzor is discredited with the princess.  
Perhaps the alliance shakes.  
Regardless. Everyone would be far too busy to discover the new and improved security.  
And her group understands more about Voltron.  
Simple.  
All she had to do was get the information out of his head. And make sure she used the right drugs while she was at it.  
Which would be tricky, given all the variables she was dealing with. But she was good at what she did. The best, actually.  
After all, Jenick, the great, self-sufficient, know-it-all stud had asked for her help.  
All that time ago.  
Drugs were so hard to get quite right, after all.  
And the end results for Jenick aside…the results for the drugs had been quite promising.  
In any case.  
Time to get to work.


	5. Do No Harm

So far, so good.  
The sedatives were working. The serums, likewise. She’d taken the mask off once he’d stopped twitching. And trying to freeze her fingers off.  
Finally. He wasn’t actively resisting anymore.  
Or sassing. Which was a relief.  
“What questions did the Larochen ask you?” she asked again. She studied the displays on the wall as she listened for the answer. So far, nothing. Just what the humans called static.  
Granted, she had given him a rather heavy dose of sedative. And her re-creation of the Larochen’s drugs were prototypes. Maybe the questions were taking time to make it to his brain.  
When she’d viewed the security footage of the paladins’ medical briefing, after the Larochen attack, she’d been intrigued by the maze they had described encountering on the astral plane. The one that the Larochen had constructed to trap them there, the one whose walls had shown painful memories from the trapped paladin’s past.  
That was unique in of itself.  
And then she’d seen that Commander Rayzor had clearly been psychically attacked when he’d gone in to rescue the Blue Paladin.  
Given the conversations on the comms, and the severe distress he’d been in when they’d finally made it back, the battle-scarred veteran had flashed back to when he’d gone to rescue Captain Arris. His brother.  
And failed.  
It’d all been most interesting.  
Really, she thought to herself, with a touch of annoyance, Aurelius was a fool. Here he had all this information about a weapon with unbelievable potential—a mind-reading toxin, a fear toxin that actually showed the victim’s deepest fears to others in crystal-clear detail, and a specimen with the toxin running strong in its veins, a practically gift-wrapped and so close to being weaponized toxin—and the first thing he does is construct an antidote, shoot his specimen full of it, and then bury the briefing footage layers deep in strengthened Proselyt security files.  
Well, then. She’d just have to take the initiative.  
Again.  
No response yet from the paladin. She tried again. Tried applying a little electric shock, too. You never knew what might help.  
“What did you tell the Larochen?” That was what she really wanted to know. Wanted to see.  
There, on the screens. A flicker of light, far off. A picture, weak, blurry, patchy. A planet, spinning. Proselyt? Hard to tell.  
The paladin’s voice, weak, but there. His eyes were half-open, glazed.  
“…nothing…”  
She pressed her advantage quickly. “What did you tell him about the defenses? What do you know?”  
The screen flickered, again, the voice, tired, drained.  
“…n—nothing..”  
“What did you tell him?!”  
The image getting stronger, now, the lines more defined the more frantic the paladin’s voice became—  
“…nothing, nothing, _nothing_!—“  
Neglia stared.  
On the screen, she saw the surface of Proselyt. Or what the paladin was—albeit very, very reluctantly—showing her was the surface of Proselyt,  
A broken, empty, wind-swept husk. Black ice formed on the caps. Glacial windstorms screamed across the planet’s surface. Deep jutting caverns cut deep into the crust, crushing the idea that subterreanan caverns existed, let alone supported life.  
The Larochen might have accessed this image if he’d asked about the base, she guessed. But the paladin had—the paladin—had—  
—purposely blended fact with lies?—  
Her thoughts raced. Was he still fighting the mind control? He must be. If the Larochen, or the Galra, or anyone else was asking questions about Voltron’s base or temporary headquarters, he couldn’t just say “nowhere”, or give a picture of empty space, or a black hole.  
So he’d improvised.  
Given a fake memory instead of the real one. Warped the coordinates and altered the information they would take from him.  
Impressive.  
But she needed the truth.  
She turned her attention back to her controls. Kept an eye on his levels. Lungs working a little too hard, heart rate rising. Not that that was unexpected.  
She moved on to her next question.  
“What did you tell him about Voltron?”  
He fought her on this, fingers curling, face twisting. She shocked him again. She didn’t have all night, dammit.  
“What did you tell him about Voltron? How deep does the mental bond go?”  
“—nothing, no, I didn’t—I’m not going to—“  
Static on the screen, no, wait, faint images, flashes of the other paladins—memories, starting to bleed through—  
—it looked like the stronger a bond was, the faster the images came—well, well, well—  
Neglia smiled to herself. Yes, she thought. This is what I need.  
She pressed her question harder.  
“Tell me.”  
The figure before her whimpered.  
Mercilessly, she shocked him again.  
“TELL ME!” she snarled.  
Mental images, spinning into focus—the five paladins, sitting in a circle in the Castle of Lions—putting on some sort of headbands, talking about sharing thoughts, sharing memories—they were putting the headbands on, now, the process was starting—the screen flickered before her eyes, glitching worse and worse the harder he fought her.  
She shocked him again, longer this time.  
“TELL ME, NOW!”  
The figure twisting before her suddenly cried out, in what sounded like agony and anger combined.   _**“NO!”**_  
A burst of cold, a sudden blaze of white light. The images on the screen blurred, whirled together, then shattered into pieces. Neglia threw up her hand to protect her eyes as ice shards flashed into being. They pounded into the walls around her, shooting out from the paladin’s form with such force that she dropped her tablet and threw herself to the ground to avoid being impaled.  
The storm ceased.  
Silence.  
And cold.  
Trembling, Neglia raised her head. Stared incredulously over at the figure lying on the table.  
Ice glittered just for a moment from the center of its chest. Then the glow disappeared, sank back beneath the skin. Neglia’s jaw dropped open. That didn’t make any sense—how had—what had—  
She looked over at the door.  
Which had just been thrown open.  
Chief Healer Aurelius stood there, Queen Riana at his shoulder.  
The chief healer’s gaze took in the room, the tubes, the shards, the different medicine bottles shattered on the floor. Took in his patient in one, terrible look. Then his eyes moved over and settled on Neglia.  
Neglia felt her insides shiver.  
She’d called Aurelius a softhearted fool before.  
But never to his face.  
He did not look softhearted now.  
Or a fool.  
Quiznak.  
He was supposed to have been asleep with everyone else.  
Quiznak. She hadn’t thought this through.

***

Aurelius was moving almost before Riana could think. With a calm that surprised even his old friend, he was in the room, grasping the woman on the floor with one hand, yanking her up and away from Lance so quickly that she’d been yanked to the other side of the room before the door he’d kicked open had bumped against the wall behind him.  
The other woman squawked and batted at his grip. Aurelius’ expression—and his grip—didn’t change.  
Riana blinked, trying to take in the relevant details of the room. She noticed the mess of equipment lying over the floor, saw that half the woman’s arm was encased in ice, as if she’d been attacking—  
—Lance!—  
A figure on the bed, not moving. Wires and tubes and restraints that definitely had not been there when she’d visited him this afternoon encased him like a horrid cocoon. And shining out from where his heart should have been—  
—Riana felt an icy chill settle over her own heart as she took a step forward. But before she could get to Lance’s side, Aurelius had said her name, once. That woke her up.  
“Secure her.” he’d said, pushing the other woman towards her. His tone was flat, emotionless, not at all like the Aurelius who’d been laughing with her just deverents ago.  
Before they’d entered the primary section.  
And found everyone asleep.  
Aurelius had staggered, too, once they’d gotten inside, eyes rolling—Riana had shrieked and caught him as he started to fall—but then there’d been a yell, from somewhere further down the corridors, something a little too loud to be completely human, the sound carried down towards them on a a gust of freezing air.  
And the temperature had dropped thirty degrees.  
Something had whined in the speakers above their heads. Then shorted out with a snap.  
All around them, people slowly began to stir.  
Aurelius’s face had gone grey, and not just from the near fall.  
“—ance.” he’d gasped. And run for the infirmary. Riana had been close on his heels.  
Where’d they found…this. This _thing_.  
Hurting Lance.  
Riana decided the best course was to follow Aurelius’ clinical way of thinking and take his orders literally.  
Because if she listened to her own inner impulses now—if she really thought about what had just happened here, in an infirmary, to a patient, to Lance—it was going to make interstellar relations awkward between the Proselyt and the Trevlins for the next few years.  
Because ripping an evil medic limb from limb in a sick room would be a hard action to bring up at the next interstellar meeting.  
Also, it’d be hard to explain to Grevin why he and Beyris wouldn’t be able to have as many playdates due to tense interstellar relations.  
So Riana nodded and reached out for the prisoner. Wrapped almost all her limbs up and around the prisoner, making sure she was firmly—and securely—wrapped up in as many vines as Riana thought practical.  
“Riana.”  
“Yes, Aurelius?”  
“I need her to be able to breathe.”  
“Oh.”  
Riana turned her gaze over to her prisoner. Who was gasping and wheezing for air, turning blue. Well. Blue-er.  
Riana relaxed her grip. Slightly. The other woman coughed, spat something venemous at Aurelius. Who was ignoring her completely, all his considerable attention focused on Lance.  
Riana bit her lip. “Aurelius? Is there anything I can—“  
“There’s nothing you can do.” the other woman gasped, trembling with rage and with hatred so bitter Riana was surprised she didn’t burn right out her grip. The woman’s red eyes were bloodshot and staring, her smile wide and forced.  
“I hope he dies.” she said viciously. “I hope the little bastard froze his heart out, and that his mind gets trapped forever in that Larochen maze! I hope the rest of them never wake up, I hope—“  
She stopped. Riana was studying her intently.  
“Neglia. Right?”  
The woman’s bloodshot eyes boggled. “How do you—“  
“I remember your brother.” Riana said calmly. “He was a good friend.” Neglia snorted, tried to jerk away. Riana did not let her.  
Riana looked round, then reached one of her free arms out and down for the cracked tablet at Neglia’s feet.  
Riana glanced at it, then began, almost disinterestedly, to work at unlocking and undoing the “update” to the security system. Oh, look, it incorporated that horrid sonic technology Aurelius had told her about. Well, that was going off the list. Right…now.  
Neglia watched her, eyes wide. “I-I-I made that system myself.” she said, stunned. “I—I—not even Jenick could get through that sys—it’s encrypted—“  
“Not very well.” Riana said shortly, flicking left, then right, then speeding through the rest of of the process with an impatient toss of the head. “There.” An almost inaudible sound, rippling throughout the base. A low hum of confused voices, rising up.  
Riana sniffed. Tapped out a message to the Altean princess, to the paladins, to Rayzor.  
Lance needed them now.  
Also, Riana didn’t want to have this woman in the same room as him for one tic longer than was absolutely necessary.  
Neglia kept raging, her eyes staring, wild. “My brother is dead.” she snarled, making little lunges towards Aurelius’ impassive back. “And you’re helping the people who killed him!”  
Riana spun her around so that they were eye to eye, bloodshot red staring into even green ones. Her next words were eerily calm.  
“You think Neren’s death justifies this?” She motioned round the room, out at the hall, where people were staggering to their feet, the hum of confusion swiftly turning into one of near panic.  
“If you knew what they did to Neren—” Neglia began, voice shrill. Riana cut her off, kindly but firmly. “I do know.” she said quietly. “I was part of the group that recovered him. And I am so, so sorry that it happened.”  
Neglia laughed scornfully. “Much good your sympathy does me. Much good it did Neren.” She spat over at Aurelius’ back, then turned back round to glare at Riana again. “You have no idea what they’re capable of.” she said.  
Riana’s fingers tightened just a little too hard on Neglia’s arms. “On the contrary.” She took a deep breath. Then kept speaking, staring straight into the other woman’s eyes.  
“I was married. Straight out of university. To a prince who became a good king. A kind ruler. When the Galra invaded our sector, he led the resistance. He said he couldn’t just stand aside and let them take what was rightfully ours. We were defeated, of course. Quite quickly. And when they finally took over our planet, the Galra executed my husband for his defiance. Broadcasted it to the entire planet.” She paused, then continued onwards, her voice shaking only a little. “They didn’t kill him quickly, and they didn’t kill him well. Haggar was there. Wanted to try something she called a quintessence drain. She had me watch the entire thing. As a lesson, you see. Grevin was only a sapling at the time, but I’d managed to hide him in the castle. So I still have that much of Lethen left to me. But only that. And every time I see Grevin, I see Lethen. And I remember what happened to him.”  
Riana looked deep into Neglia’s eyes, now.  
“So, _please_ , believe me when I say I understand your pain.”  
The next few words were iron hard, the voice that delivered them quiet but thunderously loud in the shattered infirmary room.  
“ _ **But I do not excuse it**_.”  
Voices, from outside. Riana realized she’d lifted Neglia up by the collar of her medical scrubs until they were eye to eye. Given that she was taller than Neglia by a good foot and a half, Riana belatedly blinked and set her back down on her feet.  
Maybe a little harder than was strictly necessary.  
Neglia squawked again as she made contact with the floor. They both turned to stare at the group crowding at the door.  
The young white-haired woman—Allura—took a step forward, expression furious. “What—“ she started, then stopped, lost for words. “Who are you, and what did you do to my paladin.” she said icily. Neglia’s smile was all teeth.  
“I do believe I lost his mind. And haven’t the faintest idea on how to get it back.” she said coldly. She smirked over at the tall young man beside her—Shiro—whose scarred face was set as stone. Electricity sparked in the fingers of one hand.  
“Oh, please. As if you would ever strike a woman.” She looked sideways at the deadly quiet princess. “And you, the princess of a foreign planet, can’t hurt a healer. Just think of what the Council would say.”  
A sudden sharp yanking at Neglia’s leg. Neglia looked down in time to see a thin green cord wrapped around one ankle. The small green one had dropped to one knee and shot what looked like a glowing green grappling hook through the forest of people around her. Neglia’s befuddled red eyes stared blankly down into furious brown ones.  
“KatiePidge Holt, Paladin of Voltron. Nice to meet ya.” the girl snarled.  
The whine of electricity building.  
A shriek from Neglia that was abruptly cut off.  
Pidge stood up, voice flat. “Problem solved.” She looked up at Riana. “Hope that didn’t hurt you. Didn’t think it would.”  
Riana waved a leafy hand indulgently. “I do not conduct electricity, little one. I am fine.”  
She held the limp form in her arms rather gingerly, as if handling a very large and messy spider.  
“May I—“  
The advisor—Coran—was stepping forward, expression grim, the two older men who looked very much like KatiePidge behind him with similar expressions on their faces. “I’ll take care of that.” Coran said grimly. Riana dropped Neglia into their arms. They moved away, clearing her out of the room. Then she turned to help Aurelius.  
“ ‘Relius,” she said softly, “what can I do?”  
Aurelius turned round to look at her, eyes flat and dull, expression lifeless. He blinked at them slowly. “Get the princess. And the other paladins.” he said woodenly. Then his eyes fell on them, standing motionless in the doorway. “Oh, good.” he said blankly. “You’re here.”  
A pause. Riana moved. “Aurelius.” she said again. “Anything else?”  
Aurelius looked back up at her. “Yes. Rayzor.” he said finally. “I think we’ll need him.”  
The scarred leader turned to go, but the the short dark-haired boy—Keith—was already off like a shot, sprinting down the corridors towards Rayzor’s quarters.  
Riana’s voice was small. “What do you need Rayzor to—“  
Slowly, silently, as if he’d aged twenty cycles in a single night, Aurelius stopped adjusting levels, stopped messing with medicines and tools. He moved over to the side.  
Beside Riana, Allura stiffened.  
The big, sweet one—Hunk—swallowed and audibly bit back a sob. KatiePidge swore. Shiro stayed silent.  
“Paladin Shiro.” Aurelius voice was quiet, but controlled. “Please come forward.”  
Slowly, Shiro moved to stand by Aurelius’ side.  
“Permission to start life support?”  
“Permission granted.”


	6. Surface-Healed

Rayzor had a splitting headache.  
He’d woken up a few seconds ago and winced at the pain slicing through one ear. He raised a shaking claw to his head, groaning a little. Then he stopped. Oh, quiznak. He couldn’t hear himself. He couldn’t hear much of anything.  
Oh, gods. He started up violently.  
“ _Beyris_!” he gasped.  
A squeak, a thump. Indignant red eyes looked up at him from where their owner had slid off his lap to the floor.  
“ _Ooof!_ ” she said. At least, that’s what he thought she said. Her voice was very faint, as if she was on a distant mountaintop. Beyris winced, clapping her own claws over her ears. “OW.” she said, very loudly. “WHAT HAPPENED?”  
Rayzor tried to think, but it was so hard, with his head hurting like this—  
—he shook his head, put one claw to his neck, then looked down at it, saw the dark blood trickling down from his ear—  
—he felt sick—  
And then noticed something sticking out of a vent.  
A small leafy head. Big brown eyes studying both him and Beyris intently. Rayzor  
instinctively jerked away and jumped about a foot in the air. He couldn’t quite hear the yell that he gave, but he knew he gave it all the same. Oh, stars. Now he knew how Aurelius felt.  
Beyris, still holding her claws over her ears, interestedly followed the his line of sight. Then beamed over at her small friend.  
“GREVIN.” She screamed. “WHATCHA DOIN?”  
Grevin’s little lips moved. Beyris hollered “WHAT?” a few more times, staring confusedly at her friend.  
Rayzor wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. He was too busy feeling blindsided by a busload of guilt and deep, wrenching shame.  
“I deserve this.” he muttered, to himself. Then looked mournfully down at Beyris. “You don’t, though.”  
Beyris saw his mouth moving and took her hands away from her ears long enough to to bellow “WHAT?”, and then clapped her tiny claws back over her ears, expression wincing.  
Rayzor felt his own face twist. He turned, trying to find his tablet. Maybe he could contact the paladins, or Aurelis, maybe they knew what was going on—  
Meanwhile, Grevin, seeing there was no way Beyris could understand him, had patiently pried himself out of the ventilating system and waddled his way over to Beyris. He tugged on her arms, the motion gentle but imperative. Reluctantly, Beyris lowered her hands. Grevin hummed softly to himself, reaching up and placing his own little hands over her pointed ears. Beyris made a face at him.  
“Gre-vin, I can do that myself—“ she began, then stopped, eyes widening, the discomfort melting away from her eyes. She tossed her head to one side, then the other, beaming in happy surprise.  
“Oh! Grevin! You are incredible! Thank you so MUCH!”  
She threw her arms out and gave her small friend a full body hug that lifted his leafy feet off the floor. He giggled, then turned serious.  
“—ance. Piece.” he said sadly. Beyris stopped hugging him, her eyes darkening. “Oh? But, but Grevin, I thought Aurelis found all of them. We told him about it and he went in and found all those talon piece things that were still in Lance.”  
Grevin shook his head, lower lip trembling. “One. Hiding.”  
Beyris’ expression grew grave. “Oh, my.” She darted over to Rayzor, tugged urgently on his pant leg. “Uncleuncleuncle, we have to go to the infimary right now! Lance needs us—“  
Rayzor looked away from her suddenly, claw reaching for the blaster he always kept close to hand as the door to the room swung open—a dark figure in the doorway—  
“Keith!” Beyris cried, gladness warming her voice—“Keith, oh, Keith, weneedtogetotLancerightnow—“  
Keith and Rayzor’s eyes met. Keith jerked his head in a “Come on” gesture, tossed Rayzor what looked like a small headset. Rayzor put it on.  
And the world rushed back to meet him in a blaze of sound.  
Keith was explaining what had happened, then stopped, suddenly, turned back towards the door, motioned towards the two little forms standing there watching them intently.  
Keith and Razyor exchanged looks. And nodded simultaneously.  
Rayzor grabbed Beyris.  
Keith snatched up Grevin.  
As one they pounded towards the infirmary.  
“This is nice.” Beyris said, her voice unusually loud and jerky by Rayzor’s ear. She seemed to be holding a conversation with Grevin as they sped towards the infirmary and their friends.  
“I thought we’d—have to—take the vents—again.”

***  
Allura looked searchingly up at Aurelius from where she sat by Lance’s side, stroking her paladin’s hair, trying to keep the sweaty locks out of his closed eyes. “You’re saying this Neglia recreated the sedative and the toxins the Larochen gave Lance?”  
Aurelius nodded stiffly, claws flying on the various machines and levers, Shiro beside him, studying the scans. Pidge and Hunk were on the other side of Lance’s bed, looking worriedly down at him. Pidge had one of his thin hands clasped in hers, and Hunk was tremblingly trying to wake Lance up with a series of rambling anecdotes and thinly-disguised worry rambling. Riana continued to tap through Neglia’s sputtering tablet, flicking through what looked like the command history.  
“That’s not all she did.” Riana said evenly. “Aurelius, she administered varying shocks at irregular intervals.”  
Hunk stopped muttering “comeonmancomeonman”. His head shot up and his kind face hardened into a look of absolute disgust. Then he blinked, focused back on Lance. “Nah, buddy, she’s not gunna get you that easy,” he said, forcing a steadier tone into his voice. “You’re tougher than that witch. Comeon, man, you beat it one time, you’re gonna beat it again—“  
Shiro’s Galra finger tapped frantically against his other arm, the purple light glowing brighter as the scans continued to flatline. “Shouldn’t we be running to the Lions?” Shiro wanted to know. “Getting back to the astral plane, pulling Lance out of the maze, the way we did last time?”  
“No.” Aurelius snapped, claws flying over the monitors. “This isn’t a mental block, not this time, there’s something physical keeping him under, you lot jumping into the astral plane won’t fix it this time around—I have to—“  
He stopped, stared at the monitor, then at Shiro’s arm. Then swerved his head around to stare at Lance.  
“Shiro,” he said, “Hold out your hand—no, no, the other one—yes—shine that light at—yes—yes—“  
Shiro stared, confused. Aurelius had seized his Galra arm and was pointing the palm over towards Lance.  
Allura froze, stopped stroking Lance’s hair back from his forehead. She looked down at his chest. Which was glowing, faintly. Hunk sucked in a breath. Katie rearranged her glasses. Riana frowned, spoke the words they were all thinking.  
“Is that…ice?”  
Shiro’s expression darkened as the purple light from his Galra arm showed the reason Lance’s heart had stopped.  
It’d frozen into a block of pure ice.  
Underneath the surface of the skin, a fist-shaped block was lodged, glowing icy white with a strange, pulsing energy that didn’t look quite…right.  
“Is that his quintessence doin this again?” Hunk said, awed.  
Allura frowned musingly. “No…well, not exactly…”  
Riana offered a suggestion. “My theory is that his mind flashed back to his interrogation by the Larochen and his body tried to stop it the same way again. Tried freezing his quintessence to deal with the threat.” She frowned down at Neglia’s tablet. “But something else happened. Some variable she hadn’t planned for.”  
Allura spoke again, studying the glow with a palpable dislike. “His current state isn’t caused by his quintessence. It’s something…there. Something Lance’s quintessence is trying to fight.” Her eyes narrowed. “Possibly Neglia’s interrogation worsened his condition.”  
Aurelius frowned to himself, moved Shiro’s arm off to the side, then snarled, “ _There_ ,” more to himself than anyone else. Deep inside the white glow, a dark, pulsating, cresent-moon shaped presence.  
That moved.  
Shiro said what they were all thinking. “What the _hell_ —“  
As if alerted to his voice, the darkness moved. Katie blinked. She must have been wrong. Pieces of talons didn’t—but there it went again. Creeping away from the light. Trying its best to hide in the shadows, move to a different part of the ice. A deeper part of the ice.  
Beneath them, Lance stirred, mouth curling downwards, brow creasing in pain. As the shard moved, the glow surrounding their friend’s heart grew, crackling outward. Lance’s expression twisted further. Aurelis let out an unhappy sound through his teeth. He said something urgent, but Allura had already leaned forward, stroking Lance’s forehead again, not entirely sure what she was saying or how to say it, but she knew beyond a doubt she had to stop that ice from growing. Or his quintessence could kill him, freezing him from the inside, out, faster even than the shard could.  
And if the ice was too thick, if they couldn’t get the shard out—  
“Lance—Lance—no, no, _no_ —stop, please, stop and listen to me, we’re here, we’re all right here, we can help you, we can, we _can_ , but you need to let us. _Please_ , Lance, let us help you.”  
Was it her imagination, or had the ice stopped growing, just for a tic?  
The shard tried to flash away again. Aurelius and Shiro moved his arm together in tandem, again, freezing it in place.  
Lance whimpered, a tiny, small sound that was awful in its intensity.  
And then Hunk spoke.  
“Aw, _**hell**_ no.” he said viciously, and Katie blinked over at her old friend. All traces of nausea and sickness were gone from his voice.  
“Okay, Katie, I’m gonna work out a way to cobble together a generator for Aurelis’ surgery lights that runs on Galra energy. That way this little freakin Nazgul shard won’t have anywhere to hide. Shiro, I’m gonna need your arm to power that sucker. Katie, you think you and your bro and dad could—“  
“—figure out a way to triangulate the shard’s position, predict where it’s gonna try and go? Absolutely.”  
“Allura, can you and Coran give him quintessence until we fix this? I think this thing is burning through his own supplies faster than—“ 

“—you’re right, Hunk, yes, yes of course—"  
“—and when Keith gets back here he can try melting that quintessence ice so that Aurelis can actually get the shard out—and Rayzor and Riana can stand guard at the door, make sure nobody interrupts us while we—  
Hunk stopped himself with an effort, looked apologetically over at Aurelius. “That is, uh, if you think that’s best, doc.”  
Aurelius grinned then, a completely mirthless expression that was not so much amused as grimly determined. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” He looked over at the door, where Keith and Rayzor had just arrived, panting, the two toddlers hanging on for dear life to their backs. The Chief Medical Officer turned back to his tray of instruments.  
“Let’s get started.”


	7. Reinforcements

Sinking deeper into the blackness, Lance heard voices. He thought he recognized them. One was soft, gentle, repeating his name, over and over. Another was strong, reassuring, encouraging. Another one breaking in, choppy, angry. No, not angry, worried. Another one higher, faster when stressed. Another one, deeper, gentle.  
Other voices. Ones he didn’t know as well. Something about ice, about shards, about quintessence, about vital signs—  
—wait, what was that about the mask?—  
—no—  
—no, he knew he didn’t like the mask—  
—no, no, nono _no_ —  
—the deep, gentle voice again, what’s it saying—somebody stroking his head soothingly—nonono, go away, _go away_ —  
—and you know what would be _actually_ soothing, _no mask, pal_ —  
—the voice, again, hey, hey, hey, Lance, buddy, I’m so sorry we have to do this, but we really do, Aurelius says we gotta, so we have ta—oh, man, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—please, please don’t fight us, please, please—  
—I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—  
—there, all done, see, it’s not, it’s not so bad—  
—whatever, Lance still didn’t like it—  
—the other voice stuttered a little, then picked up strength and then carried on—it’s not gonna hurt you, okay, Lance, please, please don’t be scared of us—  
—Keith is, like, literally throwing up over here because he feels so bad about this—which—  
—which is ironic, because usually I’m the one throwing up—  
—but I’ll be honest, Keith’s had it rough—I mean, he was already real nervous about melting the ice around your heart, but then after he finished that—he was sweating bullets, by the way—we had to put the mask on, and, well, you know, he hates those, and he knows you hate em too, so he just feels, well, super bad about all this—  
—but Aurelius says we’re almost done—  
—almost done, Lance, almost done—  
—hang on Lance—  
—hang on—  
—Lance—  
— _Lance?!_ —  
— _ **Lance!!**_ —  
Lance had tried. To hang on. But he was so tired. And the dark was so strong. His hold had slipped.  
And he fell into the black.  
The voices peaked, then died away.  
Nothing.  
Silence.  
Then there was a hand.  
A strong one, grabbing at his wrist, holding tight and refusing to let go. Lance was surprised, but grateful.  
He clung on, not sure what was happening, but sure that he didn’t want to fall into the darkness.  
Not yet.

***  When he opened his eyes again, he didn’t know where he was, exactly. But he knew that it wasn’t a bad place.  
“Hey kid.” an almost familiar voice said. A grinning Proselyt man in a pilot’s uniform winked at him. “You were out for quite awhile there.”  
Lance rubbed his head, studied the other man appraisingly. “You’re not Rayzor.” he said at last.  
“Nope.”  
Lance blinked again, saw another man in a faded t-shirt, leather jacket, and jeans sitting nearby, working on what looked like a laptop.  
“And you’re not Keith.”  
The man looked up briefly from his work, studied Lance with violet eyes. “Correct.”  
Lance rubbed his head again. They looked so like his friends, though. He decided he might as well ask.  
“So. Who are—“  
“Oh Keeenneeeth, I’m baaaaack!”  
Another voice, emerging from the haze all around. Sweet, chirping. Belonging to a short woman with bobbing hair, a blue dress, and a peppy attitude. She materialized at the second man’s shoulder and didn’t so much hug him as fall expectantly onto his shoulder, warbling merrily. The man kept typing, but grinned. She laughed and kissed his forehead.  
“Hello, sweetie!” she said merrily. Then she noticed Lance staring at them. “Oh!” she said, bouncing up and coming over to him, ‘He’s awake! Huzzah! How are you feeling, little one?”  
Lance blinked. She’d sat down next to him and was holding an inquisitive hand up to his forehead, cocking her head to the side, peering into his eyes, and studying him appraisingly.  
Had he just been “mom”ed by…Keith’s…mom?  “Um, good.” he said, automatically.  
“Liar.” the Proselyt said conversationally.  
“Arris!” A female Proselyt in a doctor’s uniform and with Beyris’ eyes appeared by his side, smacked him hard on the shoulder. He winced exaggeratedly and rolled his arm. “I’m just sayin.” he groused.  
She puched him again. He made a sound of aggrieved indignation, but he was grinning all the same. The grin vanished when he turned back to Lance. They both studied him, the smiles leaving their faces.  
“Seriously, though, kid. How bad is it?”  
Lance winced, rubbing at his chest, feeling a burning sensation underneath his t-shirt. Oh, good, he had clothes in this dream. Stuck by a sudden, irrational fear, he chanced a quick peek downward.  
Oh. He also had pants.  
Ohthankgod.  
He thought about the other man’s question, considered lying. Then his heart gave a sudden, painful stab, like a reproachful conscience, and he winced. “Not…not good.”  
The man called Kenneth—oh, hey, Keith’s dad—nodded, his eyes intent on his laptop’s screen.  
“That talon almost ripped your heart into pieces. All things considered, it’s a wonder you survived for this long.”  
Mae glared at him. Nodded at the Proselyt woman. Lance wondered who she was—oh, hey, waitasec—that guy Arris was giving her a twitterpated look, and had been since she’d come in—so that had to be Saria—Beyris’ mom?!—  
Saria, whose picture was up on the Proselyt’s infirmary wall for “most sympathetic caregiver” walked carelessly past Kenneth. And bopped him hard on the shoulder.  
“Ow.” Kenneth deadpanned. Saria and Mae exchanged air high fives.  
Mae looked back at Lance, expression softening.  
“What he’s trying to say is, you don’t have much time.”  
Lance felt cold all over.  
“Before I…” he fumbled for the word. Arris supplied it. “Die.”  
Lance swallowed hard. “So…so…so whaddo I….do?”  
Saria smiled encouragingly at him, then went back to her tablet. “That’s the thing, darling. You just wait here.”  
“I just…wait?” Lance said, befuddled.  
“Yes, wait.”  
Lance looked around at them all. “Seriously?!” His voice broke a little with incredulity.  
Mae amended her friend’s statement. “Well, that is to say, you wait until we finish what we can do on our side.”  
“To send you back.” Saria added.  
Mae patted one of Lance’s hands reassuringly. “Saria’s scanning your life support and fixing any glitches she finds, Kenneth is trying some sort of….Galra magic thing, and Arris thinks he can hotwire your heart to jump start again.”  
Lance looked leerily over at Arris, who, he just realized, was fiddling with something the size of a fist. And had what Lance originally thought were wires peeking out of it.  
Arris shot him a mini-salute with one gloved hand. “Yo.” he said impassively. Then turned back to his work.  
One of Lance’s eyes twitched a little.  
Mae cleared her throat and smiled at him again.  
“So, let’s you and I talk.”  
Lance looked at her blankly.  
“Just…just talk?”  
“Yes, of course.”  
Lance stared at her for a second. “You’re…you’re…helping me?”  
Her expression wrunkled, puzzled. “Why would we not?”  
Lance shook his head in disbelief, the strangeness of the situation starting to get to him.  
“I, I just, this doesn’t…this isn’t….” He looked round at the blackness, at the unfamiliar faces, and his mind started to race, old fears and jagged memories screaming at him that this was a trap, he had to run—  
He drew his hands away from Mae—or from the thing that said it was Mae—-and jumped up to his feet, alarmed, stammering, not sure if he was saying the words out loud or if they were just in his mind.  
“No, no, no nonono, this, this is another trap, a mind trap, isn’t it, I’m not gonna tell you anything about Voltron or my friends or Proselyt, I’m not—I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not—“  
A strong voice interrupted his frantic one.  
“Whoa, there.” Saria interrupted him. “Calm down, darlin.” Her voice grew softer, more gentle. “We’re not asking you anything.”  
Lance blinked, realized Saria had put down her tablet and come over to him. Put a friendly, clawed hand on his shoulder. “You have nothing to be afraid of here.” She paused, half-grinned, looked downwards. “Except Mae, maybe.”  
Half-encouraged by her smile, Lance looked down at the diminutive woman still seated before him. She was grinding her teeth and cracking her knuckles. “Oooooh, I’m going to kill that Neglia chick.” she ground out.  
Wow. And Lance thought Keith got his fierceness from his Galra side.  
Saria’s smile was anything but friendly. But even Lance could tell it was not directed at him. “You and me both, my friend, you and me both.”  
She looked back at him again. “Why are you scared of us?” she asked, calmly. Lance thought for a second. “Um, because, because the Larochen laid a trap for me, last time, and, he, tried to get me to tell him things, and I wouldn’t—I wouldn’t—“  
He stammered a little, felt his heart racing. Saria’s gentle grip tightened reassuringly on his arm for an instant.  
“It’s all right. Take your time.”  
Lance drew in a breath, started again. “—I thought what he was showin me was real too.” he said. “And then Neglia made it all happen again, so…” his voice trailed off dispirtedly.  
“I, I wanna believe you guys are actually, actually here, and helpin me, it’s just…” his voice trailed off again. “…I…I don’t know how to tell.” he finished, weakly.  
From behind his laptop screen, Kenneth spoke. “Think about it this way. Have you ever seen us before?”  
Lance furrowed his brow. “No. Well, yeah, kinda. I saw you and Mae on Keith’s hologram thing.”  
Kenneth nodded at this. “But you never spoke with us, never interacted with us.”  
Lance shook his head. “No.”  
Kenneth looked over at Arris and Saria, jerked his head towards them. “What about them?”  
Lance shook his head again. “No. Not, not—I mean,” he amended, “Beyris has a picture of you both in her locket, but you’re not—you’re different, here. You didn’t have that scar on your nose, for one thing.”  
Arris rubbed at the mark thoughtfully. “I guess not, huh, dear?”  
Saria nodded sagely. “That was after.”  
Arris’ head wrinkled in puzzlement. “When, exactly?”  
“Five cycles ago, dearest. The day before our anniversary.”  
Arris’ brow cleared. “Oh, yeah! That’s right.” He bent back down to his work, muttering. “—friggen sector thirteen rock snakes—“ so low Lance could scarcely hear him.  
Kenneth sighed a theatrical long-suffering sigh. “Exciting post-mortem adventures aside, Arris,” he said, severely—Arris grinned unrepentantly—“my point, Lance, is that the Larochen and then Neglia targeted your vital memories, ones about people you see—or saw—on a daily basis. Memories and relationships that could wound you or were crucially important to you. Correct?”  
Lance nodded, feeling his shoulders ease a little. “Yeah. Yeah, they did.”  
Kenneth shrugged again. “So there’s no reason—or way, really—that they could be warping us.” he said.

  
Lance brightened. “Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.” Then his expression became confused again as he remembered something strange Kenneth had mentioned.  
“Wait—post-mortem adventures?!—“  
Arris grinned at Lance’s bewildered look. “Lemme tell you how I got this scar,” he drawled conversationally. Kenneth rolled his eyes heavenwards in a fondly exasperated look. Mae snickered. Saria shook her head, smiling widely.  
Arris stopped short, considered, then said, meaningfully—“Well, there isn’t time to go into all the details now, but let’s just say that Skullwalkers do not like being baited.”  
“No.” Saria said solemnly. “No, they do not.”  
Lance squeaked. “Skullwalkers?!”  
Arris grinned over at him. “Aw, kid, you think the afterlife is just us starin at each other? Or sittin around in an all white room twiddling our thumbs?”  
He and the others laughed, genuine, friendly, happy laughter, as if at a joke that Lance didn’t quite understand yet but would in time.  
“It. is. awesome.” Saria said, her voice full of contentment.  
“Assuming you come in the right way.” Mae said, smiling just a little too widely for there not to be a remembered “incident” hidden somewhere in that reference. The other three parents grinned too. “Yeah.” Arris said fondly. “Gotta come in the right way.”  
Lance thought about that. Shrugged. Made sense to him. No reason you’d want to die being a jerkface. That wasn’t a real good way to start off your eternity.  
A sudden thought struck him. He cleared his throat. “Did…I…” he tried again. Tried hard not to be suddenly drowned in a wave of homesickness for his mom, his dad, his little brothers and sisters, his older brothers and sisters, his space family, his space friends—for everyone he hadn’t been able to say goodbye to.  
He’d wanted to.  
He just hadn’t been given the time.  
“…did I…come in…the right way?” he asked, voice trembling a little. Dammit, he hadn’t wanted it to tremble. They’d think he was a wuss.  
Mae’s mouth dropped open in an anguished “Oh!” and Saria sat bolt upright, exclaiming.  
Arris cut in with an indignant “THE HELL YOU DID!” Then, when the other three reproachfully yelled “ARRIS!!” and Kenneth gestured pointedly at Lance’s white face, Arris flushed beet red (which was strange to see underneath his blue skin) and amended swiftly.  
“Ah, uh, that is to say, you’re not dead yet.” he stammered. “You went out fine, kid, but you’re not stayin out. Not this time.” He grinned, recovering his old pep once he saw Lance wasn’t scared anymore. “Sorry, mate. Not your time. Not yet.”  
Lance breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. I kinda—“ he waved his hand vaguely. “—kinda wanna stay in the game. For a little while longer, at least, ya know?”  
Mae rubbed his hand reassuringly. “We know.”  
A shrilling sound from Kenneth’s laptop. Arris exclaiming “yupyupyupyupyup—hey kid, if you’re gonna go back, now is the time to go—like, now—“, Saria leaning forward and kissing him swiftly on the forehead, Mae reaching out and giving him a brief hug—  
—all these things happened so quickly, Lance wasn’t quite sure afterwards if he’d dreamed them.  
But somehow, he didn’t think he had.


	8. It Takes A Village

They were two hours into the surgery before Aurelius had been able to corner the malevolent little thing and extract it before it shredded Lance’s heart to pieces.  
Two _hours_ before Aurelius had been able to get it out.  
And then he’d kicked them out of the surgery room so he could sew Lance back up again.  
Pidge hadn’t slept in over eighteen hours.  
None of them had.  
She adjusted her glasses, glared through red-rimmed eyes at the stupid thing that had tried to kill her friend. She poked angrily at the sealed petri dish where it lay, twitching spasmodically.  
“Pidge,” Hunk said, tiredly, “maybe doin those calculations on the floor of the waitin room isn’t the best spot—besides, where did you find a microscope?—“  
Pidge didn’t look up. “I’m fine.”  
Hunk huffed out a pleading breath. Now that he no longer had anything to do, his worry and anxiety for his friends had come back fourfold. “But what if it gets loose when you’re testin it?” he worried, biting at his nails. “What if it jumps outta the Petri dish at you, and I can’t stoppit, and it goes for your heart like it did for Lance’s, and then your quintessence starts makin crazy strong vines or something to try and protect it, and what if I dunno how to counteract your superpowers with my superpowers—“  
“Hunk.” Pidge said evenly, cutting over the beginnings of his sob. She looked at him over the edge of her glasses, light glinting off them. “If that happens, I will _kill_ the talon thing. With _science_.”  
Keith grumbled something from the other side of Shiro. Pidge growled at him. “You’re just mad cuz you wanted to kill it with fire!”  
Shiro raised a hand, the voice of reason and authority once again.  
“Guys, it’s fine. Aurelius cleared it.” He leaned his head back against the wall, stared up at the ceiling. “Besides. I reserve the right to fry it with electricity.”  
The sudden wails of “Not fair!” and “Shiiiirrroooo!” and “You got to kill things last time!” stopped abruptly as Aurelius came into the waiting room, pulling the surgical mask down from his face.  
Shiro had already jumped to his feet. Allura had stopped pacing and was waiting for the news, hands clasped tightly in front of her.  
Aurelius smiled tiredly at them.  
“He’s fine.” he rasped. He grinned, the expression hollow with exhaustion, but genuine. He’s healing much faster than the last time. In fact—“  
Aurelius shuffled to the side, spread out an arm invitingly. “If you’d like, you can all go in and see him now.”  
A glimpse of Lance, oxygen mask still on, but giving a shaky but visible thumbs up from where he lay on the bed.  
Pidge, squealing, “LAAAAANNNCE!” and scurrying into the med bay, Hunk and Keith squashing behind her. Shiro was hard on their heels, after a brief but heartfelt handclasp to Aurelius.  
Allura held herself back long enough from the sick room to throw her arms around the beaming Aurelius’ neck, taking him slightly by surprise.  
“Thank you.” she whispered, and gave him a peck on the cheek. Then she was off, telling Lance with a catch in her voice how glad she was to see him, and how long it had seemed—her voice was soon lost in the happy babble of the reuniting group.  
From where he stood in the doorway, Aurelius blinked and held up one taloned claw to the side of his face, smiling a little goofily.  
From where he was slowly and painfully rising from the hospital chair he’d fallen asleep in, Rayzor grinned at his old friend. “I’m glad Lance is awake too, but I’m _not_ going to kiss you.” he said flatly.  
Aurelius kept his eyes fixed on the happy group in the med room. And hooked a foot around the leg of Rayzor’s chair.  
And pulled.  
The name Rayzor called Aurelius was cut short as two small figures entered the room at a dead run, an excitable orange-haired advisor and two grinning figures in their wake. The three older friends clapped Aurelius on the back and disappeared into the med bay which was steadily sounding more and more like a happy place of bedlam. There didn’t seem to be much room left.  
“—ere they are!’ Beyris warbled happily. “Oh, Uncle! You’ve fallen on the ground! Here, let me help you up!’  
“No, no, Beyris, I’m fine—“  
“Oh, okay!” Beyris stopped trying to drag her uncle up by the collar of his uniform—an adorable, if ultimately hopeless task—and popped over to her other uncle. “Aurelius!” Beyris said imperatively. “You did something wrong!”  
Aurelius blinked down at her. “Pardon?”  
Beside Beyris, Grevin put all six of his little leafy hands on his hips and tried his best to look suitably severe.  
It was adorable.  
“Yes!” Beyris said, trying to hide her giggle behind both her hands and failing. “You left Queen Riana’s party early!”  
“Early.” Grevin piped in.  
“And it’s only fair that you go back and spend that time with her!”  
“Time!” Grevin added.  
Aurelius opened his mouth to protest. Then thought better of it as Riana came rustling down the hall toward them. She smiled at him and held out the book he’d left behind.  
“Didn’t want you to lose that.” she said kindly. Aurelius realized the goofy little smile was still on his face. Rayzor must have noticed. So did the younglings.  
Oh, stars and stones. He didn’t care.  
“HEY GUYS!” Hunk hollered from inside the room. “LANCE WANTS TA THANK YOU TOO!”  
They all went in.  
Turned out, there was enough room.


End file.
